presenting to him a cup of tea, first perceived his insensibility. Whoever leads a life like him, need be the less anxious at how short a warning it is taken from him!
His remains were interred at Christ Church, Oxford where there is an elegant marble monument over him, with a Latin inscription by Dr. Markham, then headmaster of Westminster school, and late Archbishop of York. In this inscription he is said to have been born in 1679, and his age to be 73; whereas his brother, who furnished the particulars of his life, states the year of his birth to have been 1684, and his age consequently 69.
As to his person, he was handsome, with a countenance full of meaning and benevolence; he was possessed of great muscular strength, and of a robust constitution until he impaired it by his sedentary and too close application to his studies.
The almost enthusiastic energy of his character, which is displayed in his public works, was also apparent in his private life and in his conversation: but notwithstanding this animation and spirit, his manners were invariably mild, unaffected, and engaging. At Cloyne he generally rose between three and four in the morning, and summoned his family to a lesson on the bass viol, from an Italian master whom he liberally kept for their instruction, though he himself did not possess an ear for music-He spent the rest of the morning, and often a great part of the day in study. Few persons were ever held in higher estimation by those who knew his worth, than Bishop Berkeley. After Bishop Atterbury had been introduced to him, he lifted up his hands in astonishment, and said, "So much understanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and such bumility, I did not think had been the portion of any but angels, till I saw this gentleman." This testimony nay well excuse the well-known line of his friend Mr. Pope, in which be ascribes
- “To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven."
